A Bad Moms Christmas with the Cast

Did you see Bad Moms last year? This movie was the perfect movie for Moms. With so much pressure on Moms to be the perfect mother and do everything just the right away, it gets overwhelming. Bad Moms showed moms who were just done with not being good enough and as they busted out of those old fashion perfection rolls, real Moms laughed along as the ladies took the pressure off motherhood and brought it back to a fun and enjoyable experience.

I was so excited to head to Chicago, where Bad Moms takes place, to see a prescreening of Bad Moms Christmas and interview the cast. We were treated to a surprise before the movie began. When the cast showed up before the movie, the audience went wild.

I love to read interviews from the cast and get a look from their perspective at things from behind the scenes. I love hearing their thoughts. Being able to be part of the interviews with these amazing ladies is something I will never forget.

Blogger: And I was just wondering like how do you guys feel about the project that seemingly kind of gives this like freedom to moms to just fucking go wild? Like, what does that feel like to be a part–it’s sort of like this movement, you know, and moms are like Yes, we’re going to go out and we’re going to party? Seriously, I love how you guys have kind of like lit the fire for a group of women who generally are like just take it and we do whatever we have to do to get by, and now you’ve kind of given us the okay to go, let’s fucking have fun and like be women, girls and friends.

Kristen Bell: It’s such an important reminder because like look, this is what I say to all my friends. Do you know how many times I’m here? Once on Earth, one time. So like I want it to be joyful, and happy and exciting. And a good portion of that joy, and happiness and excitement is my kids, and then every now and again you hit capacity, and you’ve got to switch it up, and you’ve got to take a girls night.

And that’s healthy, and that’s actually healthier than not doing it. And for some reason culturally we’ve decided it is unacceptable to talk about mothers being autonomous women at all, ever, point blank period.

Kristen Bell: Self-care, and forgiveness and not feeling ashamed for anything and just being confident in your decisions is a really important part of life that no one talks about. And for me that’s what this movie is about. It is okay to want to go get a massage. It is okay to say to your husband I need seven hours off tonight, point blank period.

Kathryn Hahn: God, I don’t know why I’m feeling very emotional this morning, but it really does feel like such a tribe, too, coming together, doesn’t it? Just like to have, to just feel like you’re a part of a community is, ugh, it really is comforting to know we have each other’s backs. Like I also think one of the important messages of both movies is just like the lack of judgment and self-criticism, to try to like let that go because, like Kristin was saying, it’s like we only are mommies to these little people for a very short amount of time, and if you don’t want to spend like any excess nonsense worrying about crap, whether it’s what this–you know, what your cupcakes look like, or like you know what I mean? Like whose cupcakes are better than–like it just seems to be so–we just spend too much time thinking about other things, I think.

Blogger: Mila, you said it in Marie Claire this month that you don’t you feel bad. So like what you do? What do you do? What do all of you guys do to unleash and take time?

Mila Kunis: I do it, but I just say out loud I actually do feel bad about it. Like I’m not going to pretend like I have no problem going out my girlfriends. I absolutely have guilt over it. I have an amazing partner who is like get over it. Get out. So I do have somebody that’s constantly like pushing me to like, you know, be my own human being. That doesn’t stop me from having guilt.

Kristen Bell: It’s okay to feel two things at once. That’s something that’s not said enough.

Kathryn Hahn: Absolutely.

Kristen Bell: It is okay to be a paradox sometimes. So you can feel guilty, and you can also know that you need a night out with your girlfriends.

Mila Kunis: And once I have that night it’s like the greatest sense of relief ever, and I come home and he’s like how was it? And I’m like it was so fun, and we have to do it again. Like six months later I’m like I don’t know; I don’t want to leave the kids. Like it’s the same cycle. He’s like, get out. But it’s great, and it’s you know, I get out. I just feel the guilt.

Kristen Bell: Also, if you didn’t have that guilt–the reason you have that guilt is because you’re doing it right. That’s the truth.

Kathryn Hahn: Yes, totally.

Kristen Bell: If you didn’t have that guilt we would be like, meh, where are your kids? You know, but because you have that guilt it actually means–

Kathryn Hahn: Yes, exactly, exactly.

Kristen Bell: –that you’re doing it right. Again, like you’ve got to forgive yourself for–you’re allowed to be two things at once.

Kathryn Hahn: And it really is–

Mila Kunis: I think that sometimes people don’t want to say it out loud, and I have no shame saying it out loud. We were having this conversation earlier. I feel like I’m very vulnerable after I had kids, but all that vulnerability ever did was make me be more confident in voicing it.

Blogger: You guys gave that night to 700 people last night, so thank you. So what does girls’ night out look like to each of you, the ultimate girls’ night out?

Kathryn Hahn: Oh, I mean it does feel like medicine, doesn’t it, when you come up from being with your friends? And then you just have a fresh perspective on like everything else.

Blogger: What is your ideal girls’ night out?

Kathryn Hahn: That is a good question. It varies. It totally varies.

Mila Kunis: Go ahead, Kathryn. I’d like to hear your answer.

Kathryn Hahn: I love karaoke so frickin’ much. It is such a release and so stupid, and we’re cheering each other on. So that’s recently what I’ve been really enjoying. But sometimes I’m too tired and that sounds exhausting because you also know you have to have a couple of these before one can sing. So I also love a nice digested meal, you know what I mean, where you can take bites, and you’re not inhaling your food, like just actually tasting good food is also really awesome because don’t you feel like you just don’t chew anymore, like you’re just shoveling food in so fast? I feel like that is also very relaxing for me, yes, just to taste food.

Kristen Bell: I feel like all I’m tasting when I’m shoveling it in is like the dishes, the dishes, that pan I need to soak, the dishes. I don’t have enough dish soap.

Kathryn Hahn: Exactly. Shoveling it in so fast. Yes, exactly. What are your evenings out?

Mila Kunis: But also with the understanding that at six in the morning I’ve got to get up, get the kids ready for school. So me saying drinking and food is not me saying I get schmammered. It just means I have like–

Kathryn Hahn: Dinner at 6:30.

Mila Kunis: Yes, exactly.

Kathryn Hahn: Home by 9:00 watching Netflix.

Mila Kunis: Yes, but you know what, those three hours are magical.

Kathryn Hahn: The best.

Mila Kunis: And I have not just one, but two beverages, you guys. It’s great. And there’s actually a group of us. There’s like eight of us that live in LA, that we’re all moms, and we all make each other go out.

Kathryn Hahn: It’s so important.

Mila Kunis: We force ourselves to go, and literally just abandon the family for like three hours at 6:30. That means the husband has to put the kids down, so that’s like one less like responsibility. And we go to the same restaurant, and we drink a lot of drinks and a lot of food and get back in the car and are home at 9:30 and it’s great.

Kathryn Hahn: Oh my God, and it’s the best on the way home to be like I could get in bed and watch something, like that feeling of like watch is actually very relaxing, too.

Mila Kunis: And then 15 minutes later I fall asleep.

Kathryn Hahn: And then fall asleep during it, right, exactly.

Blogger: My favorite scene was at Sky Zone.

Kathryn Hahn: [Gasp] so fun.

Blogger: I would just love to know what it was like filming that, and was it a one-day shoot? How do you prepare for Sky Zone dodgeball? Like do you practice?

Kristen Bell: It was two days.

Mila Kunis: Was it two days? Was it?

Kristen Bell: I think.

Kathryn Hahn: Mila and I are still, our backs are still screwed up.

Mila Kunis: I legitimately got hurt.

Kathryn Hahn: She [Kristen Bell] got so much air it was kind of amazing to watch her.

Kristen Bell: It was really hot because it was Atlanta in the summer, and I was in like a turtleneck and a mohair sweater, and we were jumping, and it was a lot of physical activity.

Mila Kunis: But it was strange how much air you got. Like you on that trampoline were legit.

Kathryn Hahn: Amazing.

Mila Kunis: Kathryn and I were like, ugh, my back, my leg, my hip.

Kristen Bell: You’ve got to compensate with the core. You’ve got to go tight to get the ups.

Kathryn Hahn: She really did. It was like this adorable blonde elf like bouncing. She was so high. It was so amazing.

Kristen Bell: I did like bouncing a lot. It was fun.

Kathryn Hahn: Yes, it was fun.

Kristen Bell: But it was fun for like the first two hours, and then like hour 12 everybody was like–

Kathryn Hahn: You were all joy, a blonde joy bomb in that Sky Zone. It’s true.

Mila Kunis: Well you know what I just remembered is you were just holding your boobs the whole time.

Kristen Bell: Because they were falling out.

Kathryn Hahn: I did because I had those really heavy cutlets, guys, and it was uncomfortable. Okay, and I had to prepare. These are the things, you know what I mean, it’s tough. It’s a real tough job.

Blogger: Something that I loved about the movie was even when we were driving back last night everybody was saying there was some mom in the movie that they can relate to or their mom can relate to. I know everyone, all the moms in the movie have a daughter. So curious, was there one mom that you really related to or even off the set that you kind of bonded with all the other moms? Just curious to get your perspective on that a little bit.

Cheryl Hines: You mean as the character? Like us personally as people and we look at it and go oh, I’m sort of like that mom?

Blogger: Yes.

Cheryl Hines: Yes. I mean sadly, I really relate to Sandy, my character, because I have a 13-year-old daughter, and I just, I love her, and I want to be with her. I like to touch her. I like to touch her hair because she’s got beautiful hair, and her skin.

Blogger: Is that what we’re all going to turn into?

Blogger: I feel you.

Cheryl Hines: Yes, no–

Blogger: Is that my future?

Cheryl Hines: Yes, that’s the problem is–

Blogger: Not that there’s a problem with that.

Cheryl Hines: Well, even when I watch it I’m thinking I mean is that a problem?

Susan Sarandon: I find it a problem not to take a bite out of a one-year-old because they’re just–

Cheryl Hines: I know.

Susan Sarandon: –so–I mean I’m very hands-on, too, and at a certain point you just have to just–it takes everything not to just bite them. They’re so luscious. And I am very physical with my kids, too, and so I identify with that. I was saying that, you know, when you have a job outside the home it curtails those tendencies to be just like overbearing, and it kind of naturally makes a space for you because you have other stuff you have to do or else you could–because I find now that I’m a grandmother that I realize as a mother how constant your child or children are on your–

Cheryl Hines: Mind.

Susan Sarandon: –in your bubble because now my daughter is a really good mom. She’s got a great husband. The kids are fabulous. So I can go in. I’m taking a 4:00 AM going to the airport to make it back for Halloween when they’re trick-or-treating, from LA because we had to go that–

Cheryl Hines: Back in the day?

Susan Sarandon: So no, I’m doing it from LA.

Cheryl Hines: Oh, you’re going to see the grandkids.

Susan Sarandon: Yes, from LA I’m going to go to check out the dragon action in Weston, and but I know that maybe I would be too involved if it weren’t for the fact that you know I have a job. And also I can now just go Yes, she’ll take care of it. You know, they’ll take care of it. It’s going to be okay. I’m older now. I have distance. I’m not freaking out about everything. And so my relationship with the grandkids has shown me how–because even my grown boys, I talk to them every other day. I talk to my daughter all the time, Facetime a few times a day sometimes depending on what’s going on.

So they’re always there. As moms, somehow they’re always there, and you don’t realize how much, how present they are until, for me, until I had grandkids and I saw and experienced a love relationship where I wasn’t the one holding all the loose ends. And I think moms tend to be the one, when people say to me, when young women say to me, I’m wondering if I should have a baby, I say well look, I don’t care how great your husband is. You’re going to end up doing this. You better be ready to understand that at least the first two years the burden is going to be so much more on you than it is on him.

Cheryl Hines: Even though he’ll say we’re 50-50.

Susan Sarandon: That’s the scariest part because you realize they don’t have a clue–

Susan Sarandon: I think this movie says build time for yourself, which is the hardest thing to do, and that we only have ourselves to blame if we don’t find a way to do that. And if we don’t raise sons that are respectful and don’t take that for granted, at least don’t take it for granted, even if they don’t, multitasking isn’t their talent, that they at least can appreciate and notice what you do. That’s a big part, I think, too is just the appreciation.

Bad Moms Christmas will be coming to theaters on November 1st. Take a tip from the Bad Moms and take a break to treat yourself this holiday season. Get your tickets now: BadMomsTickets.com

Comments

I’m sooo looking forward to seeing this movie, and having a barrel of laughs. I’ve been reading serious articles such as in Time magazine about the pressure moms feel to be perfect, it is fun to have some “serious” laughs!

This is so awesome! I love all of these women and have been so excited for this movie. And to hear how terrific these ladies are in person just makes me happier. FTR< I would kill to do karaoke with Kathryn!
🙂
Traci

How fun! It sounds like the actresses totally embrace the message of the moms they play. It’s ok to get out there and have some fun. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for these ladies over the holidays!

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The 411 On Us

Hi, I'm Angela, founder and content creator at About a Mom. I live in sunny Florida with my 10-year-old little girl. If you are seeking ideas and inspiration for family fun, mealtime, travel, or fun things to do in Florida, you will find it here. Please take a moment to explore this blog, check out my 'About Me' page or drop me a note.